So I've been looking into why the pagination isn't working, but I just can't find anything. When it goes to page 2, it just shows the same as the first page. Any other ideas?

        <?php  global $paged; get_template_part( 'template-parts/header'); 
        if ( $total > 1 )  {
             // get the current page
             if ( !$current_page = get_query_var('paged') )
                  $current_page = 1;
             // structure of "format" depends on whether we're using pretty permalinks
             if( get_option('permalink_structure') ) {
                 $format = '?paged=%#%';
             }
             }
         ?>
    <div class="blog-inner">
          <div class="grid-container">
            <div class="grid-x">
              <div class="large-8 column">
                <?php
                  if ( get_query_var('paged') ) {
                     $paged = get_query_var('paged');
                    } elseif ( get_query_var('page') ) {
                     $paged = get_query_var('page');
                    } else {
                     $paged = 1;
                    }
    
                  $blogs = array(
                    'post_type'      => 'post',
                    'order'      => 'DESC',
                    'posts_per_page' =>  3,
                    'paged'      => $paged
                  );
    
                  $blog_posts = new WP_Query($blogs); ?>
                <?php if ( $blog_posts->have_posts() ) : while ( $blog_posts->have_posts() ) : $blog_posts->the_post(); ?>
                  <div class="blog-post">
                    <h4><?php the_title(); ?></h4>
                    <div class="byline">
                      
                    <p><?php the_excerpt(); ?></p>
                    
                      ?>
                    </div>
                    <div class="read-all">
                      <a href="<?php the_permalink();?>" class="">Read The Post</a>
                    </div>
                  </div>
                <?php endwhile; ?>
                <div class="pagination">
                  <?php wp_reset_query(); ?>
                      <?php 
                          echo paginate_links( array(
                              'base'         => str_replace( 999999999, '%#%', esc_url( get_pagenum_link( 999999999 ) ) ),
                              'total'        => $blog_posts->max_num_pages,
                              'current'      => max( 1, get_query_var( 'paged' ) ),
                              'format'       => '?paged=%#%',
                              'show_all'     => false,
                              'type'         => 'plain',
                              'end_size'     => 2,
                              'mid_size'     => 1,
                              'prev_next'    => true,
                              'prev_text'    => sprintf( '<i></i> %1$s', __( 'Newer Posts', 'text-domain' ) ),
                              'next_text'    => sprintf( '%1$s <i></i>', __( 'Older Posts', 'text-domain' ) ),
                              'add_args'     => false,
                              'add_fragment' => '',
                          ) );
                      ?>
                  </div>
                 
                <?php endif; ?>
              </div>
                    </div>
                    <?php endwhile; ?>
                  </div>
                <?php endif; ?>
              </div>
            </div>
          </div>
        </div>

 
[some html-taken out, so some divs might not match up]

More Info: it is currently set as the index.php page, even though it's not the home page. if you get to it through misspelling a url, it works